Nurse-Patient Dyads: Linking Nurse & Patient Characteristics to Outcome Lourdes Marie S. Tejero, PhD, RN University of the Philippines, College of Nursing, The Philippines Keywords: nurse-patient dyads, nurse-patient bonding, nurse-patient relationship, patient satisfaction, methods triangulation

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Abstract

Introduction

The patient’s sense of well-being, more importantly for the terminally ill, is nestled in the interaction between nurse and patient. The nurse and patient form a dyad as they interact. The outcome, i.e. patient satisfaction, ensue not from the characteristics of the nurse and patient per se but from the nurse-patient dyad. 

The specific aims of this study are to (1) validate the Nurse-Patient Dyad Instrument (NPDI) that will be used to categorize the different nurse-patient dyads (2) determine the intermediary effect of nurse-patient dyads betweennurse-patient characteristics and patient satisfaction through path analysis; (3) describe further the different dyads in terms of factors affecting their formation and development based on the experiences of nurses and patients through a qualitative research approach.

Methodology

This study utilized methods triangulation. Both quantitative and qualitative techniques were employed to describe the phenomenon of the nurse-patient dyad. The quantitative aspect tested the model indicating the relationship between nurse & patient characteristics to patient satisfaction, mediated by the nurse-patient dyad. The qualitative part which used the critical incident technique (Byrne, 2001) provided in-depth information on the nurse-patient dyad, adding more information to the quantitative findings.